Introduction. Higher allocation of land in favour of fruits is vital to
raise the farm income and productivity, but such an opportunity is also complemented with
higher risk and uncertainty. Economic expectation assumes a great role, while such
decisions have an impact on the welfare of farmers in terms of their income and risk. In
this paper, we examined the nature of price expectations, their relationship with other
economic factors, and analysed the importance of price and income expectations of the
fruit (apple) growers on their land allocation decisions. Materials and
methods. In this paper, the elicitation technique was used to obtain both price
and income expectations of apple growers. The price expectations were compared with the
actual price of apple over the last three years and then linked with farmers' input-use
propensities. A regression method was used to identify the role of expectations in the
decision of land allocation in favour of apple crops. Results and conclusion.
Our results showed that better price expectation improves the input-use (generally labour)
propensities. However, for allocation of the inelastic factor of production,
i.e., land, in favour of a fruit crop, it is the income expectations
that explain farmers’ decisions. Farmers’ capacity to generate higher productivity along
with the better market prospects together explain their decision regarding allocating land
to high value fruit crops.